Typically, gas turbine engines include a compressor for compressing air, a combustor for mixing the compressed air with fuel and igniting the mixture, and a turbine blade assembly for producing power. Combustors often operate at high temperatures that may exceed 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit. Typical turbine combustor configurations expose turbine blade assemblies to these high temperatures. As a result, turbine blades must be made of materials capable of withstanding such high temperatures. In addition, turbine blades often contain cooling systems for prolonging the life of the blades and reducing the likelihood of failure as a result of excessive temperatures.
Typically, turbine blades, as shown in FIG. 1, are formed from a root portion at one end and an elongated portion forming a blade that extends outwardly from a platform coupled to the root portion at an opposite end of the turbine blade. The blade is ordinarily composed of a tip opposite the root section, a leading edge, and a trailing edge. The inner aspects of most turbine blades typically contain an intricate maze of cooling channels as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 forming a cooling system. The cooling channels in the blades receive air from the compressor of the turbine engine and pass the air through the blade. The cooling channels often include multiple flow paths that are designed to maintain all aspects of the turbine blade at a relatively uniform temperature. However, centrifugal forces and air flow at boundary layers often prevent some areas of the turbine blade from being adequately cooled, which results in the formation of localized hot spots. Localized hot spots, depending on their location, can reduce the useful life of a turbine blade and can damage a turbine blade to an extent necessitating replacement of the blade.
Typically, conventional turbine blades have a collection of exhaust orifices in the leading edge forming a showerhead for exhausting cooling gases onto the leading edge of the turbine blade. Many conventional configurations of the showerhead orifices have the orifices aligned in the same orientation. Aligning the orifices in the same orientation of the showerhead often leads to cracking of the leading edge, as shown in FIG. 4, which is often referred to as zipper effect cracking as the cracks extend between adjacent orifices radially along the leading edge. Thus, a configuration of orifices for a leading edge is needed that produces an effective film cooling gas distribution and reduces the likelihood of zipper cracks forming in the leading edge of the blade.